Magic items in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and in The Diamond Throne sometimes require a little bit of thought on the DM's part. Using them isn't a problem, and there are really no conversion issues from d20 books. You can put bracers of armor, a rod of lordly might, a lantern of revealing, and a flaming axe in your adventure with no problems. You might run into situations where a given item is based on a spell effect that does not appear in Arcana Unearthed (and has no close analog), requiring you to look at the Player's Handbook, but that's merely a slight inconvenience. (The same can be true of some core monsters that you might want to use in your Arcana Unearthed campaign.)

Choose Your Items With Care
The chapter on magic items in The Diamond Throne cautions against allowing items that have effects that were clearly removed from the system presented in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Like haste, for one example. Instant death effects for another. But ultimately that's more of a flavor issue than an actual rules issue and is up to an individual DM.

If I were you, I wouldn't randomly generate items out of the DMG to use in the Diamond Throne setting. First off, you'll get undesirable results, like those mentioned above. You'll also not get some desired results. You'll never generate a +2 flaming litorian warclub, for example. Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed is for more advanced, sophisticated DMs, so I'm going to just state right here that your campaign overall will be better if you don't use random generation for your items, but instead pick them from the lists. It's more work, and takes more thought, but it will be worth it in the end.

Create Your Own
Creating and pricing magic items are where the DM needs to devote a few more minutes of time. The item creation feats in Arcana Unearthed are straightforward and, I think, streamlined. For example, it doesn't make a distinction between a ring, a rod, and other kinds of wondrous item. They're just all constant items. And actually, even that's not true. You could make a one-use ring. Or a charged rod. The point is actually that the form no longer dictates the function.

When looking through the DMG's list of items (or those found in any d20 product), you'll need to keep in mind that item categories differ between Arcana Unearthed and D&D. A few things listed as wondrous items, for example, like feather tokens, are really one-use items, not constant items. But that's pretty straightforward. You'll want to use the DMG for what I'll call "standard power items." These are the items that don't directly mimic spells and don't use the formula (spell level times caster level times some number) to derive their price, but instead have their own standard formulas -- like +1 swords, rings of protection, bracers of armor, and so on.

A Question of Price
So shouldn't some DMG items be repriced under the Arcana Unearthed paradigm? Shouldn't a ring of invisibility cost more because in Arcana Unearthed it's based on a 3rd-level spell rather than a 2nd-level spell? Shouldn't the prices of charm-related items be higher because of the spell's magic item creation modifiers?

Yes. In fact, Arcana Unearthed purists are not going to use any items out of the DMG (with the exception of standard power items). They're going to use only The Diamond Throne items and items created using the rules presented in the Arcana Unearthed feats.

Are you going to wreck your game if you don't go through and reprice all the DMG items? No. And, you'll find, most of them don't need to be repriced anyway -- the two creation systems just aren't that dissimilar in the end. If you put in a couple of items from the DMG, one at a time, here and there, it's no big deal. Eyeball the price if price becomes an issue, but otherwise don't worry about it.

You'll do a much better job of conveying the flavor of the game, however, if you take the time to create mostly new items, or use those in The Diamond Throne. A rod of wonder, for example, feels very D&D. You'll do your campaign a favor, if you create a necklace of dazzlespheres, a circlet of reading minds, a ring of saving grace, or a staff of muddy ground. These "feel" different than the items your players are used to.

And of course, the Arcana Unearthed pricing guidelines are a must when the PCs want to create items. Then, you want to put your DMG away -- except for the aforementioned standard power items. The PC item creator should only have access to the Arcana Unearthed spells and feats when creating new items.

From a design standpoint, surprisingly, most of the issues that come up regarding magic items are more flavor related than balance related.

 

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* A Look at the Land -- August 15, 2003
"This week I've prepared an excerpt from The Diamond Throne. As I've said previously, it was my design choice to spend most of the gazetteer portion of the book on the general aspects of the world..."

* Designing a World -- August 7, 2003
"I have mixed feelings about campaign settings. On one hand -- speaking as designer -- it's fun, challenging, and rewarding to create a whole world that's all your own...."

* Weapons and Armor -- July 17, 2003
"I absolutely love the introduction of exotic weapons into D&D. It's one of my favorite things about 3rd Edition. In Arcana Unearthed, I wanted to make sure that the exotic weapons were worth the feat required to use them...."

* Greenbond Notes -- June 26, 2003
"Last week's preview of the greenbond class gives a nice glimpse of a lot of Arcana Unearthed issues. First off, the greenbond is no druid...."

* Spell Templates -- June 12, 2003
"This week I thought I'd discuss an idea that I'm really very happy with. The idea is spell templates..."

* Playtesting -- June 5, 2003
"Playtesting is extremely important to me. When we developed 3rd Edition, we did more playtesting than perhaps any other RPG product, ever...."

* High Magic -- May 29, 2003
"I referred to the Diamond Throne as a high-magic setting. I should clarify..."

* The Diamond Throne -- May 23, 2003
"So it's about time I start talking about the Diamond Throne. The Diamond Throne is a campaign setting for Arcana Unearthed -- the default setting, like Greyhawk for D&D, I suppose...."

* Death's Door -- May 8 , 2003
" I like the D&D death's door rules. I like that at 0 hp, you're still up and can take a limited action, but then you exhaust yourself...."

* Hero Points -- May 1, 2003
"A roleplaying campaign can be like putting up wallpaper...."

* Truenames -- April 18, 2003
"Truenames are common in many fantasy settings. I think I first became aware of the concept in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy..."

* Go, Go, Go! -- April 10, 2003
"Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations...."

* Ceremony -- April 3, 2003
"I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic...."

* Things That Rules Take Away -- March 21, 2003
"There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away...."

* Still Talking Classes -- March 13, 2003
"I've saved some of the best classes for last. Let's talk about the runethane, the mage blade, and the witch...."

* More Classes -- February 27, 2003
"This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes: akashics, magisters, and greenbonds...."

* Build a Better Fighter -- February 23, 2003
"The title this week is facetious. It really should be 'build a different fighter'...."

* The Magic Balancing Act -- February 13, 2003
"In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. First, I streamlined the item creation feats..."

* More Magic -- January 23, 2003
"This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed."

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."